


The Midnight Games

by Popfrost



Category: Caduceus | Trauma Center Series
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Major Character Injury, Other, Second gen ocs, Watch your faves get rekt, fair warning: there are a lot of trans hcs in this, just a lot of queer stuff in general
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-26
Updated: 2016-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-16 10:45:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5825533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Popfrost/pseuds/Popfrost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“The Midnight Games are about to begin, dearest Rose...”<br/>“Prepare yourself.”<br/>There is a dream world, controlled by a council of men, women, and others of their kind.<br/>In this world, each choose one unlucky soul to act as their pawn in a game called "The Midnight Games".<br/>Erhard and his comrades are just some of the many unlucky.<br/>They will fight. They will break. They will die. They will live. Some will face pasts they tried so hard to bury, and futures some tried to prevent.<br/>--ABANDONED--</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Mmhm.”  
> “Shut up.”

_ “I wish I could have seen the lights... Y’know, before they all disappeared.” _

_ “Mmhm.” _

Two dreamer servants stood by the edge of the great orb filled abyss; one staring up into the gap at the roof of the cavern, the other standing across from her and focusing on the list given to him by their masters. Small bits of starlight filtered into room, the light from their lantern casting whispery shadows onto the lifeless spheres resting almost peacefully inside of the over-brimming chasm.  The girl took her attention off from the stars and placed them onto the boy besides her. 

“Onyx, are you even listening to me...?”  
“Mmhm...” 

Her name was Kamala. Young, and too fearsome for a servant as herself. She spoke too much. Spoke in the light and when it wasn’t her place to talk. She was born lucky. Lucky that she hadn’t been terminated for her misconduct.

She stared at Onyx for a moment, the pale and silent ghost he was. He was young as well, a year older than her in fact, and as fearsome as a pebble. He was a gentle servant, soft spoken, and used to living in the lap of luxury considering he was a slave to the council. His master was gracious towards him, from what she could see at least, spoiling him rotten. Now he was a feathery brat, yet a brat that followed the rules without question.

“Christ, you’re no fun to be around.”  She mumbled to him, returning back to stargazing.  _ Talking to the cavern walls would be more fun than talking to someone like you.  _ “In any case, Rose told me about the skylights that they used to have... Apparently they were really pretty and-”

“Mmhm...” Onyx read over the information granted to him by their masters, exhaling softly. “Kamala, once the moon reaches the middle of the pool, we must act fast.”

“Or what?”

“Or,” He started, glaring over at her from where he was. “We’ll lose our chance to fish out the chosen ones of this year's games.”

“Okay, okay.”

“If that happens, we’ll surely be terminated...” He hissed under his breath, going back to reading the instructions. “Now... All we have to do is recite the names of the chosen and take their dream orbs to the stream.”

“Simple.” Kamala spoke softly. 

“Yeah..” Onyx gave her a cross look. “Simple enough. Hopefully you won’t screw this up.”

Kamala tensed up, giving him a sideways look. “Excuse me, pretty boy?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“Look, not all of us can be Mr. Perfect like you, shithead.” She growled. “Besides, that was years ago. Let it go.”

“Mmhm.”

“Shut up.”

The moon edged it’s way across the sky in silence, a blue glow soon shining in through the gap in the ceiling. The whispers from the shadows soon turned to the sound of life as the orbs came in contact with the moonlight. Laughing, crying, screams, and talking soon filled the room as the moon’s light slowly filled the room.

Kamala took a step back and stared at the ocean of orbs in amazement. 

“Woah...” She mumbled softly to herself. “How are we supposed to find the right ones...?”

“I just explained that to you..” He tossed her the list and locked his fingers together, stretching them outwards and cracking each one of them.

Kamala caught the list, skimming through it quickly. “Yeah, yeah, I know.”

“Now, let’s get this started-” 

“Wait, this isn’t the right list...?”

Onyx glanced over at her, frowning. “What do you mean by that?” He growled out. “Kamala, that’s the exact list I received from our masters.”  
“I know but..” She reached into the pocket of her suit, pulling out a smaller piece of paper with names messily scrawled down onto it. “Look, this is the list Rose gave to me.”

“Oh no.” He spoke sternly, glaring at her. “We aren’t gathering up a few half pints just for the sake of you fulfilling your ‘duties’ to some fake goddess you heard in Rose’s stories.”

“They aren’t half pints, Onyx.” She hissed out. “They’re the next of kin to the councilmen.”

“What?” He seemed... shocked. With a frown, he opened his hand up to receive the paper. 

She kindly gave it to him, watching as the other read it quickly. 

“My...” He murmured. “This still doesn’t change our plans...! We’ve been given specific orders from our masters to enter in these men-”

“Do you want to enter in a few half baked fools, or do you want to meet the children of legends in the flesh?”

He stared at her coldly, huffing softly. “You make a compelling argument.”

“I know I do.” She smiled wide. “So are you in this or what...?”

“I...” Onyx swallowed hard, thinking over the decision he had to make. If he said no, he wasn’t risking termination. If he said yes, he was risking the chance of being terminated for insubordination, especially to this severity. They were both risking termination by doing this. “Fine... B-But...”

Kamala frowned “But what?”

He groaned. “May mother forgive me for what I’ve done.” He stared down at the paper, shakily reciting each of the names listed onto the paper. 

Each name elicited the presence of an orb, each shining brightly as they rolled up towards the two and rested themselves along their feet. The two picked up three each, quickly carrying them off towards the Stream of the chosen.

“I’m so dead.” Onyx muttered his way there. “We’re so dead.”

“No, once they see their faces they’ll be thanking us for the advantage we’ve given them.” She smirked. “Victor children are more powerful than even their parents in this world, after all.”

“You might be right..” He sighed as they reached the edge of the stream.

“Of course I’m right, Onyx.” She smiled wide, setting the orbs down into the stream. She watched them, carefully, as they sank to the bottom and began to relight the stream. Now all of the dream world would know that their decision was final. The games would begin soon.  “I’m always right.” 

 

* * *

 

Rosalia stood at the edge of the balcony, staring out into the world below and down at the glowing stream that separated the council’s world from the world of games. They had done it.  _ They had done it. _

“So, you managed to convince the young Kamala to choose the great six?”

Rose turned quickly to see who was behind her, taking a step back in shock to see who they were.

“My ladies!” She spoke quickly. “You are here!”

“Keep your voice down, dearest Rose.” The older figure spoke softly. “We are here in spirit, as we always have been.”

“Yes, my ladies.” She spoke softly, more quietly now. “It took little time. She caught onto reason quickly.”

“I’m sure Onyx did not catch on as quickly.” The younger figure sighed in the shadows. “He was never the type to listen to reason. He followed authority blindly.”

“He is as any loyal dreamer was programmed to be.” Rose gave them a soft look. 

“No dreamer is programmed to be that way.” The older figure shook her head. “The first dreamer was born to follow her own heart. He...”

“He is a nuance in comparison to the first dreamer.” The younger woman placed a hand on the older one’s shoulder. “But he is still a dreamer regardless.”

“Yes, my love.” She spoke. “Still a dreamer.”

“My queens,” Rose brought their attention back to her. “Forgive me but... You still have not told me why you need these six...”

“Ah yes...” They sighed in unison.

“They are important.” The younger one murmured. “The catalyst to our return even! If things play out right... If things go our way...”

“You will return...? Really?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe...”

The two women began to slip back into the shadows, holding each other’s hands. 

_ “The Midnight Games are about to begin, dearest Rose...” _

_ “Prepare yourself.” _


	2. He wakes in a world of stars.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It was just a dream... Wasn’t it?"

Part I: Chrysalis

 

Chapter 1: He wakes in a world of stars.

 

The games have begun.

_ No. _

_ Not quite yet... _

 

_ He wakes in a war like world, on the top of a stranded area of floating land. He is alone, in darkness, surrounded by the sound of battle. Screaming fills the air, the heavy scent of blood hits him like a crashing wave, and he feels his body sinking into what seems like nothingness. He feels as though this is his end. He knows that this is the end. He quickly feels his body succumb to the overload of it all, but he fights it. He fights the shutdown of his senses and fights with himself to move. He has to get away from this place! He must live! _

_ After a few steps the land underneath him ceases, and before he knows it he is falling. The world before him opens up into something bright and entirely new.  _

_ “Fight my children!” _

_ “This is the final battle! We must end strong!” _

_ He is in a world of stars and a checkerboard battlefield. A war has erupted right in front of his eyes. Or, the end of a war from what he can hear. For some reason, he knows that this is the end. _

_ He spends what seems to be an eternity falling towards the checkerboard field, watching the two sides collide in battle. The closer he gets to the ground, the better he can see the two sides. One side is made up of... Children...? No, that can’t be right. But the closer he looks, the more he realizes that he wasn’t mistaken in his first guess. The side he’s closest to is made up of small children, fighting almost as diligently as the other side, made up entirely of what seems to be adults.Leading the children, however, are two large women, both who seemed larger than life. Regardless, it didn’t seem like a fair fight at all..  _

_ He glanced down at the ground below him, soon becoming all too painfully close. He was nearing his own end too at this rate. Oh God, what was there to do now? He stared at the sky, the stars within it, and... the lights. _

_ “Your time is nearing, my child.” _

_ The voice was familiar. Dream like and wavy, yet still so familiar...  _

_ Professor Sartre! _

_ “Your time is nearing to play in our games.” _

_ Another voice joined his. A woman’s, one of which that was less familiar than Albert’s but still recognizable. Her name was on the tip of his tongue... It was... _

_ “In a day’s time we will be reunited.”  _

_ “In a day’s time you will begin training to enter our games.” _

_ An entirely different voice soon spoke up above Albert’s and the woman’s. A deep voice, just as gravely as Albert’s and carrying the exact same accent. He didn’t know who this one was... _

_ “In a day’s time you will become nothing more than a pawn of ours.”  _

_ In unison the three spoke. _

_ “We will meet again in your next dream. Be prepared.” _

_ The dream faded, and the sound of crying entered his senses... _

* * *

 

Erhard Muller’s eyes opened wide, quickly sitting up in bed and reaching out for someone who wasn’t there. He felt sick to his stomach, sweating bullets as he struggled to control his breathing. 

“Hey, what’s going on?”

He glanced over at his partner in crime, Maria Torres, who turned on the light by her nightstand and looked back over at him.

“Erhard, are you okay? Christ, you look like you’ve seen a ghost...” She murmured softly, sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. “What happened? Another bad dream?”

“I...” Erhard nodded softly, sighing shakily as he got out of bed. “A really bad one.” He glanced over at the baby monitor, the lights on it going off as the sound of a baby’s cries filtered out from it. 

“Want to talk about it?” She mumbled out tiredly, giving him a soft look as he put one of his more baggier T-shirts on. He seemed to prefer those over the tight wear he used to sport. 

“Not at this second.” He murmured softly to her, glancing over and giving her a small smile. “We can talk about it in the morning.”

“You sure?” Maria raised a brow. “We can always talk after you handle little Rosie.”

“I’m sure, sweetie.”

“Alright...” She yawned and laid back in bed. “I’m always here for you, though, 24/7...”

“I know.”

He went down the hallway and opened the door to Rosie’s room, the pastel pink painted room filling with the aroma of lavender baby lotion and formula. She was young, only a year old, and had lungs of steel. Her wails could probably stir the neighborhood, if not already.

“Alright, sweetie, it’s okay.” He picked the baby up. gently rocking her in his arms and sighing. Some nights she wouldn’t stop crying. On those nights both he and Maria would usually take turns in attempting to calm her down. Nothing would work. They would often have to wait for her cry herself out, and wait for her to fall asleep after she had tired herself from crying. He could only hope that tonight would not be one of those nights. “Daddy’s here...”

She kept close to him, but continued to squeal. He glanced over at the clock, sighing ever so softly. 

“Hm...” He glanced back down at her. “It is close to your feeding time..” 

He went out the door with Rose held close in his arms, starting down the stairs and towards the kitchen. She’d calm down a little bit by the time they reached the kitchen, but was still fussy and squirming in his arms. He balanced her in one arm, opening up the cabinet with his freed hand. He took out the formula canister and a blue baby bottle. Diligently, he started on making a bottle for her, taking out the milk after and pouring some into the bottle. He placed the bottle into the microwave; putting it in for a reasonable amount of time so that it would be warm enough, yet not hot. 

Once it was done he placed the top on, giving it a good shake to mix up the contents in the bottle. With that he gave the bottle to the child, watching as she latched on and began to nurse. 

Then there was sweet silence, aside from the younger one’s suckling.

“Good girl.” He sighed, stroking her head and starting towards the stairs.

He kept her eyes on her for a few moments before glancing up, jumping back when he saw a small figure sitting at the top of the stairs.

Great, what was this now? He squinted his eyes a little, turning the light on to the stairs. The figure jumped at the sudden light, his sobs becoming more apparent. Oh no.

“Alexander?” Erhard’s expression soon softened upon seeing his son, quickly turning the lights back down and starting up the stairs. “Alex, what’s wrong, buddy?”

“I had a bad dream...” The little boy sniffled out softly, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his pajama top.

He gently ruffled his hair, sighing a little. “Why don’t you get back in your room and I’ll talk to you after I put your sister back in bed, hm?”

“Alright, Dad...” Alex got up, starting towards his room and looking back at him sadly for a moment. Before Erhard could speak again, he’d made his way into his room.

He went back into Rose’s room, gently taking the finished bottle from the infant and placing it onto the changing table besides her crib. With that, he placed her closer to his shoulder, gently patting her back until he heard a small burp come out of the child. 

“There.” He murmured, gently setting Rose back into her crib and smoothing out her hair. She let out a noise of content, giving him a sleepy look and soon nodding off to sleep. 

He sighed softly, smiling at his daughter. With that, he slipped out of the room, going over to check back up on Alex.

Alex sat on his bed, staring at his hands and whimpering softly. Erhard gave him a saddened look at this. “Hey, Al, you doing okay...?”

Al shook his head, sniffling rubbing his eyes again. Erhard sat on the edge of the other’s race car bed, looking at him with concern set in his face.

“So,” He started. “Do you want to talk about that dream you had?”

Alex looked up at his father with pain filled green eyes, soon looking away. He nodded. “I...” He sighed. “I had a dream that you and Mom got hurt real bad...”

“You did, huh?”

Al nodded again, lip quivering. “It was terrible... I... I was in this really weird place and.. you two were there...” He started to cry again, covering his mouth as though to hold himself back. Erhard took him onto his lap and into his arms. 

“Oh, Al...” He sighed, stroking his back in the attempt to calm him down.

“And... you got hurt by this bad man...” He sobbed out. “I’m really scared. I don’t want you guys to get hurt!”

“We won’t get hurt, Alex.” Erhard sighed, stroking his hair. “We’re all safe here...”

“But..” Alex looked up at him. “...Alright...  I trust you...”

He settle down after a few moments, sniffling softly and rest his head against his father’s chest.

“It’ll be okay... Okay?”

There’s a long, drawn out pause. Alex exhales slowly. “Okay.”

* * *

 

“Had a rough night, kid?”

Erhard groaned as he rubbed his temples, nodding at the two walked down the hallway together.

“Figured.” Gabriel chuckled. “You’ve been more quiet than you usually are. Need some coffee?”

“No thanks, I’m good.” 

“Alright. In anycase, Want to run over what happened last night with me, or is that a little too personal?”

“No, I’m fine with explaining what happened.” 

The two soon came up to Gabe’s office, both stepping in. The scent of fresh coffee hit Erhard upside the head faster than he could process the surrounding room. It was enticing, sure, but the taste? It just wasn’t... for him. He preferred hot tea over coffee. 

“Welcome to my humble little office.”

It had been spruced up a little the last he’d been in here, though not by much. A change in furniture layout and the addition of a brand new coffee pot. Not bad.

“Go ahead and get comfy on the couch while I pour out some coffee for myself. You sure you don’t want any?” Gabe questioned softly as Erhard glanced around. He shook his head again.

“No thank you, but I appreciate the offer.” Erhard went towards the couch, touching the smooth green velvet. He loved messing around with the fabric on Gabe’s couch, moving the texture along with his fingers. It was weird. But it was also rather relaxing to touch.

“So,” Gabe walked came towards the couch, leaning over it as Erhard sat down. “What happened last night? Baby issues again or was Maria just keeping you up all night?”

“What? N-No, nothing like that.” He turned a little red at the notion. “I just... Had a weird dream.”

“A weird dream?” Gabe raised a brow. “Mind giving me more details?”

“Just...” Erhard glanced away. “I was in this weird place. I don’t know where but... I was falling through the air and down towards this weird checkerboard ground...”

Gabe tensed a little. “Excuse me?”

“What?”

“You were falling towards a checkerboard ground, huh?” Gabe grew more than tense then, going over to set his coffee mug down.

“Yeah...?” Erhard seemed a little confused now, watching as Gabriel began to pace about his office. “You’re freaking me out a little bit, Dr. Cunningham..”

“Sorry.” Gabe sat down besides him, leg bouncing however. He was antsy now. “Were there anyone in your dream? Someone mentioning something about entering... a game?”

“Yes, actually.” Erhard scooted a little away from him. How did he know about that? “I...”

“Great.” Gabe pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, kid, for your sake and the sake of a few others, you cannot go to sleep anytime soon.”

“What?” Erhard raised a brow.

“You heard me.” He sighed and looked down. “Kid, I’m sorry if I’m scaring you. I’ll sort this out one way or another.”

“Sort what out?”

Gabriel got up, heading over to the door and opening it. “I’ll figure this out, kid. Just stay here and stay awake.”

With that, he was gone, leaving Erhard in silence and leaving him to stew in what he said.

He had to sort something out. But what? What was going on?

_ It was just a dream... Wasn’t it?  _


	3. It wasn’t just a dream.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's too late. You're too late."

_It wasn’t just a dream._

Gabriel sat idly by the edge of the rooftop, staring off into the cloudy horizon. This was bad. No, this was more than bad. He closed his eyes in a tired manner, sighing out a cloud of smoke and laying back against the cool concrete of the roof.

How could he have let this happen? He snorted. Then again, he had no control over those brainless fools.

“How could you expect for them to keep their promise?” He muttered to himself, shaking his head as he felt the sound of thunder begin to lull him into a false sense of peace. He took the lit cigarette out of his mouth, smothering it out against the flooring and heaving out one last sullen breath.

“How can you expect any of them to still have morals?” Ages of being stuck in a world of lies and fantasy would do that to you, he knew that for a fact.

It took him a while, but soon he found silence amongst the sounds of a brewing storm. The sound of a crackling fire soon washed over him, the cold of a marble floor melted along his fingers, and he knew he was there. It wasn’t until she spoke, that was when he truly woke up.

“How can you expect any of us to still be human after all these years, Gabriel?” Her voice was melodic, sighing as she spoke, caressing his ears in the worst of ways. It made his heart ache. He hasn’t heard her voice in years.

He opened his eyes to blue fire and two tall active thrones. She and another were the sole occupiers of the throne room tonight. He stared up at her worn face, gentle and caring, messy hazel hair covering bits of her eyes from his sight. She gazed down at him, bearing the same dark honey colored eyes he had. She offered him a callused covered hand, and a warm smile.

“Welcome back home, my child.”

“Home?” He scoffed, getting up himself and dusting off the dirt covering his soft, dark cyan clothing. He hated the attire he was given in the dream world. They were loose around the hips, loose on him in general. Of course, it grew with him, but they were never meant for him to begin with. He glanced around at the dark room, sighing. “This realm has never been my home.”

His mother sighed, placing her hand down and looking away.

“Ah! Little Cunningham!”

Gabriel and his mother both looked up at the highest throne, a small man standing at the top. He jumped off his two story high perch, unfurling translucent brown roach wings and flying down in a less than graceful manner.

“Boy, oh boy,” The man started, voice gravely and accented, adjusting his glasses and fixing his navy blue hair. “Have we missed you, son of the great Calliope!”  
“Yeah, alright, I highly doubt that, Clement.” He rolled his eyes at the older man, folding his arms.

“Gabriel, we have all missed you so.” She extended her hand once more, only to curl it away at the disdain in his eyes. “At least... I have missed you the most... Please, my child, do not doubt that.”

“Yeah.” He snorted, looking away and into the blue flames lapping at the edges of the floor. “So, let’s get down to business.”

“Ah, yes, why you returned back to here after your long vacation to reality.”Clement smirked, shifting his weight and folding his arms. “Do enlighten us.”

God, was he annoying. He liked Clement the least of all of the Councilmen. He glared back at the two, causing his mother to take a step back.

“He had the dream.”

Clement and Calliope both looked at each other, partially out of puzzlement and partially out of shock.  They looked back at Gabriel.

“Who had the dream?” Clement raised a brow.

“You fucking know who. Don’t play stupid.” Gabe was more irritated now. He hated it when they played these games. “Your only son got chosen to be the catalyst of his team. I know what that special dream is like.”

“Ah..” Clement rolled his eyes. “They kid had a dream, so what?” He turned to go back to his throne. “And yeah, he was chosen to be the catalyst, big whoop de doo.”

“You’re putting your own kid up? Just like that?” Gabe snarled out. “He’s your flesh and blood, Sartre, and you’re throwing him out there to die just like that?”

Clement glanced back. “You seem to have low expectations for the son of two victors.” He shrugged. “Besides, I wasn’t the one to pick him out.”  
“What do you mean by that?”

Clement glanced back, cuffing his hands around his mouth. “CAL!”

The young dreamer peaked out from behind the marble throne, giving Clement a heated look.

“Get your sore tail over here and give Little Cunningham the paper you and your buddy decided to use at the choosing ceremony.”

The boy walked out of the shadow of the throne, trudging his way towards them with a limp. Gabriel glared at Clement. Clement simply shrugged.

“What? Shit like this can’t go unpunished.” He spoke. “I didn’t raise the kid to be insubordinate and make shit decisions like this. Hell, I didn’t raise them to make decisions in general.”

“That’s because you never raised me.” Cal muttered under his breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

Clement eyed the boy with irritation as he handed Gabriel the list.

The kid had a point, surely. Dreamers were never raised by their masters. Always raised by some weird force that none of them really understood. They just showed up in the wild with some sense of duty. To serve.

Gabriel took the list from the boy, staring down at it and sighing. Oh god. He brushed back his hair with his fingers, huffing out painfully.

“Erhard Muller, Maria Torres, Hank Freebird,” He recited out. “Tomoe Tachibana, Naomi Kimishima...” He got to the last name and shook his head, chuckling. “Gabriel Cunningham.”

“Gabriel, oh god, I’m so-”

“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry,” Gabe’s expression quickly went downhill, eyes glaring up at the two of them. “Because you aren’t sorry. You never are.”

Calliope flinched back at his words, looking away. “Gabriel...”

“I should have guessed that I’d someday be thrown in for not joining your shitty club, but...” Tears welled at the edges of his eyes and he shook his head. “Fuck... I never thought I’d have to do this all over again.”

“Oh, baby...” His mother cooed, reaching out to gently touch his hand again. “None of us were happy to see that you were entered in. None of us were.”

“Yeah.” He stepped away from her again, creating an even bigger gap than what there was before. “I’m sure you were. If you were so unhappy with this outcome, why didn’t you just switched us out with someone different?”

“You know things don’t work that way.” Calliope sighed. “Look, if we could, we would. But now, everything has been finalized. We can’t go back, no matter how much we want to.”

“Great.” He balled up the paper and threw it into the fire out of anger. “This is just perfect! Everything I’ve worked for! Everything I’ve done to make sure they all _lived_ , gone in an instant.”

Clement smirked. “You’ve only been delaying the inevitable.” He sighed out. “But, guess what? You can continue your struggle when the games start.”

Gabriel stared at the floor was heated eyes as Calliope took another step back. She looked over into the flames. “You have a day until your time comes. Some of us have grown impatient though...”

“What do you mean by that...?”

“Muller is being pulled in as we speak. From your time.”

“What?!” His eyes went wide. Oh god. _No_. His physical form began to shift, fading away just from the sheer panic he was entering. He was waking up. “This can’t happen! Not to him. Not to them.”

“It’s too late.” Clement’s voice began to fade off into darkness. “You’re too late.”

Gabriel grew weak, collapsing to the cold floor as the man before him turned to leave the room of thrones and flames.

“We’ll be seeing you soon, Gabriel.”

* * *

 

Gabriel woke to heavy rain battering down on him and thunder echoing in his ears. But he had no time to grumble over soaking wet clothes. They were already being pulled in.

He got up, ignoring the dizziness that came with it. If there was any good time to use his powers, now would be the best time. He closed his eyes, channeling in his mind where he needed to go... and then... He backed up and ran.

He needed to time this perfectly. Or else? He’d certainly be done for.

In a split second, he was in the air, and then he was falling down towards the pavement.

He let out a loud yell, and then, with the warning of one last thunderclap, he was out of the rain. A painful chill cut deep into his bones. He opened his eyes. He was in his office now.

“Kid?” He quickly looked around, breath quickening a little when he noticed that Erhard wasn’t in the room. He looked quickly over at the door. Did he leave? Dammit. He dashed out of the room, down the hallways, eyes flickering back and forth as he tried to search for the younger one. God, where did he go?

“Dr. Muller!”

He looked down the hallway he’d just entered, immediately spotting the kid and nurse Emma. Oh fuck. He quickly went over to where they were, staring down at Erhard. He looked like a fish out of water. Eyes wide, breath quick. Being pulled in was one of the more horrible parts of the games.

“Kid, look at me.” Gabriel went to his side, taking hold of his hand and squeezing it in hopes of pulling him back into reality. “It’ll be okay. Just stay with me, okay?”

“C-Can’t...” His expression grew tiresome, weak. “S-Sleep...”

“No! Don’t fall asleep on me, okay?!” Gabriel squeezed his hand until his knuckles grew white. “You can’t leave me. Not like this.”

“I’m... Sorry...” His eyelids drooped down until he finally went limp next to him. Gabriel felt his heart drop.

“No!” He tried shaking him a little, but nothing would wake him. That was it. He was in the dream world now. He felt the buzz of panic take hold of him, settling in his heart and causing him to shudder out a few loud curses. He couldn’t save him.

“Dr. Cunningham?” Emma stared at the two in shock.

Gabriel glanced back at her, and then at the kid. He sighed a little, forcing himself to push the feelings of panic away. “He’s unconscious. Get a bed ready for him, please...?” He felt tired himself. Worn. But he wouldn’t fall asleep now. Not until the others knew.

Emma complied, rushing off to get a room settled for him.

Things were going by too fast.

But, he knew this all was only just the beginning. 


End file.
